Student activism yields high numbers at polls

Vote 2012Volunteer Caper Gooden '16 spent the morning handing out sample ballots and asking students, “Do you know your address on campus? Do you have a photo ID?”
Photos by Stephen Salpukas

Vote 2012Freshman Stephanie Lauterbach was one of more than 600 students who registered to vote this fall thanks to the efforts of the Student Assembly voter-registration drive.

Vote 2012Students flocked to the Jamestown United Methodist Church to vote on Election Day. Roughly 1,600 new W&M students registered to vote in Williamsburg this fall.

Vote 2012Zachary Woodward ’14, director of this year’s Student Assembly voter registration drive, said the organization has been working since the beginning of the semester to register students to vote locally.

Freshman Stephanie Lauterbach left her math class at Jones
Hall Tuesday morning and walked directly across the street to Jamestown United
Methodist Church to cast her vote in the 2012 presidential election.

Lauterbach, 18, from Chesapeake, Va., could have requested
an absentee ballot. Instead, she chose
to sign up for voter registration in her college hometown.

“Since I’m going be at William & Mary and here in the
community for the next four years, I’d rather vote about the local issues,” she
said.

Lauterbach was one of more than 600 students who registered
to vote this fall thanks to the efforts of the Student Assembly voter-registration drive. Today, the SA continued their efforts by providing students
with information and transportation to the polls.

“Since William & Mary students got the right to vote in
Williamsburg in 2006 the Student Assembly has been working with students to
educate them on how and where to vote,” said Zachary Woodward ’14, director of
this year’s SA voter registration drive.

All semester until the end of October the Student Assembly
held voter registration drives throughout campus, he said. They also worked
with other organizations, such as fraternities and sororities, to help spread
the world.

“This year has been an overwhelming positive response,” said
Woodward. “Students are very thankful
for the information we provide, specifically ID requirements and addresses for
their dorms.”

Other student organizations also worked throughout the
semester to register students to vote. One thousand more students signed up
through the W&M Obama and Romney campaigns, The Young Democrats, The
College Republicans and Students for Liberty, increasing the total of new
W&M students registered to vote in Williamsburg to roughly 1,600.

On Election Day, the organizations saw their work come to
fruition as students headed to the polls. The Student Assembly also provided
vans to transport students to the community center poll, and volunteers provided
last-minute information to student voters.

Freshman Caper Gooden from Richmond, Va., stood outside the
church where Lauterbach voted, handing out sample ballots and asking students,
“Do you know your address on campus? Do you have a photo ID?”

“The number one question I get is ‘what’s my address on
campus?’” said Gooden. “Most students
don’t know the physical address of their dorm, but that’s one of the questions
they ask you to vote.”

Lauterbach said she learned of her option to vote locally
during a student activity fair held on campus.

“It’s easier and very accessible,” said Lauterbach. “It wasn’t intimidating at all and everyone
with the Student Assembly was very helpful. I felt very comfortable getting help from students my age.”